Free «Causes and Consequences of World War Two» Essay Sample
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What Were the Causes of the 2nd World War?
There were many causes that led to the Second World War. Perhaps the main cause of this war was the First World War. The 1st world war caused a major division between various nations. This consisted of the Allied power that comprised of France, the United States of America, the British Empire, the Russian empire among others. This alied power was the winners of this world war. The second group was known as the Central powers that consisted of, the German Empire, Hungary, and Australia among others. Then came the Versailles treaty which immediately followed the 1st world war culmination, which accused Germany of being the cause of the wars therefore putting onto them some military restrictions. The Germans were also fined a huge amount of money as a result. As if this was not enough, they were also asked to make territorial concessions towards the Allied powers (Dowswell, 2002).
Soon after the 1st world war the Germans witnessed the rise of a famous dictator called Adolf Hitler who came with his Nazism concept which became popular in the 1930s. Nazism was a type of socialism which was quite different from Marxism, which was accompanied by expansionism together with racism. This socialism required absolute obedience to a strong and powerful leader who was no other than Hitler himself. Whereas the Germans saw the rise of Nazism and a new leader, Hitler, Italy on the other hand saw the rise of Benito Mussolini accompanied with the rise of his form of socialism called Fascism. This socialism on its part advocated for racism, totalitarianism as well as great violence. Both the Hitler’s and Mussolini’s concepts were quite the same to each other hence this depicted both of them as the leaders of the war directed towards the Allied Powers.
During this period of time, the Republican government which was being led by the then president, Woodrow Wilson decided to stop taking part in the political activities which were taking part all through the world at that time. Also the League of Nations charged with the responsibility of bringing sanity throughout the world turned failed to achieve this. The result was that the world was unable to avoid the menace of the great Depression that followed immediately after. Amidst the chaos at the time countries like Italy, Japan, and Germany attacked their neighbors as they looked forward to expanding their territories. Consequently the Allied powers took this seriously and revenged with military force. This is what led to the 2nd world war (Dowswell, 2002).
What Were the Consequences of World War 2?
Even as the consequences of the 1st world war are seen to be gruesome, they consequences of the 2nd world war made those of the first to look just like a Sunday picnic. The lost lived as a result of this war amounted to many millions, and also those who were left without homes were much larger than that. However the Second World War was the end of all dictatorship in all the European countries. It also marked the turnover in terms of the super powers from Germany to the Soviet Union together with the United States. Also it marked the birth of the Unite Nations, which was an organization meant to promote the much needed peace as well as world security.
Immediately after its formation I put in place the Paris Peace Treaty which took place on 10th of February, 1947. This treaty allowed nations such as Bulgaria, Italy as well as Finland to become sovereign States in the international affairs and also allowed them to join the membership of the United Nations. The Paris Peace Treaty also provided for the compensation of war victims and also allowed for the adjustment of territories. Several Asian and other European countries were not favored by the evens that followed the world war. This is because the territorial borders ere redrawn. Some countries like Finland, Japan Germany and Poland as well as other independent states to the German territories lost some part of their land to the Soviet Union which was a great benefactor to this boundary reviews. German was the biggest losers as a result of these reviews as it was divided into four. One of the parts was taken by France, the other by the United States, and the others by the Great Britain and Soviet Union. The first plans put forth by the United States toward Germany were eased as it came to a realization that the European revival largely depended on the Germany industrial base revival. It is important to realize that the end of the 2nd world war did not put everything to an end. It was because of this war that the foundation of the cold war between the Soviet Union and United States which lived for 44 years was laid (Divine, 1969).
That covered momentous information as far as the causes and the consequences of the 2nd world war are concerned. It is also important to note that the 2nd world war had some positive effects though they are not comparable to its replications’. There was creation of many job opportunities which brought an end to Great Depression unemployment crises. Whereas the Industries that met the consequences of the 2nd world war were a success, the others were unsuccessful. Also the economy in the European countries almost stagnated during the 2nd World War. The repercussions of this war took some time be eliminated after the end of the war came September the 2nd , 1945 but it was not until after the loss of about 49,000,000 civilians and soldiers numbering to 24,000,000 (Divine, 1969).